KSC: This Week in Space (April 17-30)

The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex just shared with us the newest edition of a regular feature called "This Week in Space." Let's take a look back:

• April 17, 1970: Apollo 13 made a splash landing in the Pacific Ocean. Only a couple of days into their mission, an oxygen tank exploded and the crew switched their focus from landing on the moon to safely returning to Earth.

• April 19, 1971: The Soviet’s Salyut 1 launched and became the world’s first space station. It was shaped like a stepped cylinder with a single docking port and had three main compartments, providing the cosmonauts with everything they needed to survive in space.
• April 20, 1972: Apollo 16 was the fifth moon landing, but the first landing in the lunar highlands. Before exploring the Descartes Formation and Cayley Formation in the highlands, it was thought they were once volcanoes. After the Apollo 16 crew investigated these areas, we learned that they were impact craters. This information aided in learning more about our moon’s history. 
• April 21, 1997: The first private memorial spaceflight launched carrying the remains of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, American physicist Gerald O’Neill, German rocket-propulsion engineer Krafft Ehricke and 21 others. The Celestis spacecraft orbited the Earth for five years until it reentered the atmosphere in 2002.
• April 22, 2014: The Lyrid meteor shower peaks this morning between midnight and dawn. Every year, Earth passes through Comet Thatcher’s tail and this results in a meteor shower close by the star Vega within the constellation Lyra. Bring a chair (and a telescope if you have one), sit back, and watch the bright meteors fly by Earth’s atmosphere.
• April 24, 1970: China launched its first satellite, Dongfanghong-1 which means “East is Red”. This made China the fifth country to attain independent launch capability.
• April 25, 1990: The Hubble Space Telescope was deployed by the crew members of STS-31 Discovery. Hubble has provided 24 years of deep space photographs, helping scientists understand more about our universe through its lens.
• April 26, 1993: STS-55 Columbia launched 21 years ago bringing the second reusable German Spacelab to the International Space Station. This mission established international cooperation and scientific research for future space station operations with Germany.
• April 27, 1953: Astronaut Ellen Baker, M.D., turns 61 today. Dr. Baker flew on three shuttle missions: STS-34 Atlantis, STS-50 Columbia and STS-71 Atlantis. She served as a mission specialist, and conducted several medical and scientific experiments.
• April 28, 2001: Dennis Tito, an American business man and space enthusiast, became the first space tourist. Tito was an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and always had the dream of flying to space. Although NASA did not approve of Tito’s launch into orbit, the Russian space program agreed to allow Tito passage in their Soyuz spacecraft. Twenty million dollars and a few roadblocks later, Tito fulfilled his dream of flying to space. Today, the commercial space industry is taking off and the idea of private citizens going to space isn’t so outlandish.
• April 30, 2014: The Falcon 9 rocket launches today carrying 8 2nd generation Orbcomm communications satellites. Operating for Orbcomm Inc., the satellites will provide two-way messaging services for global customers.

For more information, visit www.KennedySpaceCenter.com.